Page 135 of Ever With Me

Later, Dan Klein showed up at the hospital and reiterated that he really needed to get a bodyguard out here.

Done already.

But not in time to save Maddie and her family and his niece from this.

Because of me.

“I can’t see him?” Maddie said to the nurse, her face pale. “Please let me see him. I was there when it all happened. I have to see him.”

The nurse gave Maddie a sympathetic look and shook her head.

Susan Yardley sank onto the bench beside her daughter and pulled her into her arms. “It’s fine, sweetie. It’s okay. You’re not to blame for this. We all have known for a long time that Pops was having heart trouble.”

“He won’t listen to me,” Bunny said somberly, her tired face filled with sadness. “I keep telling him to stop eating those damn potato chips.”

“But it is my fault.” Maddie laid her cheek against her mother’s chest. “Because he was protecting me. He shouldn’t have exerted himself that way.”

Her words made Brooks’s heart hurt in a way he couldn’t describe.

Thank God for Peter.

But it should have been me there.

“Dad would take a bullet for all of us,” Maddie’s father said. “That’s who he is, Maddie.”

Naomi came up beside Brooks. “You should probably take her home,” she whispered. “I’ll get everyone else to leave so she doesn’t fight it. But she needs to rest.”

Brooks nodded, peeling himself away from the wall where he’d been leaning. “Thank you.”

I’m sorry,he almost added.I’m sorry for hurting your sister. For exposing her to this.

He pressed his lips together. Naomi might not forgive him anyway, and surely, she already knew. The rest of the family might have been welcoming, but Naomi had seen right through him.

He didn’t deserve Madison Yardley.

True to her word, Naomi got the other siblings going, which left Bunny with Maddie’s parents. Brooks squatted down in front of Maddie. “Let’s get you home.”

She closed her eyes as though she couldn’t look at him.

She’d been avoiding looking at him.

“You need to get some sleep, sweetie,” Susan said, gently pulling away from her. “You’re all banged up.”

“I’m fine,” Maddie said and sat up straighter. She looked around for her purse, which the police had fetched from the pontoon and brought to her.

“I’ll bring you back first thing tomorrow morning.” Brooks slipped his hand into hers.

After a moment, she sighed, then stood. “Fine. But first thing.”

The car ride back was just as quiet and painful. A bodyguard waiting in the corridor escorted them to an SUV with fully tinted windows, where more armed security waited. They’d be parked behind the Depot the rest of the night. One bodyguard would remain outside the apartment door.

Once inside her apartment, Maddie went to shower, and Brooks did his best not to pace. The black nail polish Audrey had used on him was still on the floor and he picked it up, then scraped some paint off the floorboards.

A stab of pain went through him.

This day had started so normally. Or what he’d fooled himself into believing could be normal. Playing with his niece. A boat ride with his girlfriend.

But this was no longer the quiet lake house he’d sought when he’d come here with Cormac. Paparazzi were following his daily movements.

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